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A friend of mine joined Twitter the other day. This, just days after he told me in a previous conversation that he doesn't understand Twitter or the sense of tweeting. I tried explaining it to him, but I don't think he understood it very well.
"I didn't know you were on Twitter," he said.
"I am. But don't follow me, because then you'll discover my other life."
"What 'other life?'"
"My blog life."
Confession: Sometimes I feel like I lead two lives - a real entrepreneur-by-day, hockey-player-by-night life and a blog life. Except I didn't realize this until tonight, when I said it to my friend.
Not very many of my real-life, non-blog friends know about this blog (for good reason). None of them know that I'm a part of a blogging community and have met some of my [now] closest friends through it. None of them know about the intimate details that I reveal on this blog. It's amazing what we will reveal on the internet (via blogs), but we won't tell our real life, non-blogger friends. It's even more amazing at the number of bloggers who have formed real life friendships with other bloggers. In fact, even most of my Twitter followers are bloggers.
I got nervous when my friend said he would follow me on Twitter. And then I [kind of] jokingly said that I would follow him back and tag him in every tweet, as my defense mechanism to get him to not follow me. I feel like I'm living a double-life because my real life friends just don't understand blogging, blogger meet-ups, or friendships based around blogging. It makes it very challenging to have a conversation about something I read on a blog when that person has no idea what a blog is.
While I may not reveal my identity on this, I do reveal intimate thoughts based around my life events. And sometimes I blog about my real life friends or conversations that spark blog fodder (such as this). I reveal pieces of my intimate life that I wouldn't necessarily share with my real life friends because it's so much easier to feel less vulnerable when you sit behind a computer screen and type your words, than having to say it to someone face-to-face. I've come to learn that not every one of my real life friends have the capacity to hold intellectual, stimulating conversations that I often crave.
Today, I announced (via Twitter and FB) that I am one of six Stratejoy Season 4 Bloggers (YAY!!!). That means I get to spend the next six months blogging about my past, present and future, my Quarterlife crisis, and my journey to discovering authentic happiness. It means being incredibly honest and open with the Stratejoy Tribe (and the internet) about my life - the challenges I face, the adventures I'm about to take, the bouts of depression I've conquered, the details of my broken and damaged past. I'm incredibly excited for this opportunity, and to get to know my other Season 4 sisters, but I'm also nervous because once I put it out there, I can't take it back.
I plan on sharing my Stratejoy adventures with my real life friends, in the hopes that they'll understand what blogging is, why I do it, and how it's become a big part of my every day life. Because it's my outlet. After a long day, I blog. When I'm feeling creative, I blog. When I want to talk about something, I blog. I do it because I love it.
Do what you love and forget the rest.
